Uploaded October 2023 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
In this two-part lecture, we will look at two pagan accounts of the birth or the fashioning of the world, and see why the account of the sacred authors of the Hebrews is not only different from them, not only a correction or a completion, but a radically new revelation. Yet we will also consider how the Old Testament can speak to the imaginations of pagans then and now, without condemning them as simply and purely in error.
Readings:
Genesis 1-24
Exodus 3
Job 38-41
Psalm 8
The Epic of Gilgamesh (for October 17)
Hesiod, Theogony (for October 24)
The Enuma Elish (optional)
instituteofcatholicculture.org/events/the-mythological-imagination-or-not
Instructor:
Dr. Anthony Esolen is the author of dozens of books and over 1,500 articles in both scholarly and general interest journals. Known for his three-volume verse translation of the Modern Library edition of Dante's Divine Comedy, Professor Esolen has also written verse translations of Tasso's epic poem, Jerusalem Delivered, and of Lucretius' On the Nature of Things. His own book-length sacred poem, The Hundredfold: Songs for the Lord, is a series of 100 lyric poems and dramatic monologues interspersed with two dozen of his own beautifully written hymns. He has taught literature and the humanities for over 30 years, and he is a frequent speaker at colleges and at church and civic institutions. Dr. Esolen currently serves as Distinguished Professor of Humanities at Thales College in Wake Forest, NC. For more from Dr. Esolen, please visit his online magazine, Word & Song, at www.AnthonyEsolen.com.
Want to dive deeper? Visit our website for hundreds of hours of free audio and video content: instituteofcatholicculture.org
In this two-part lecture, we will look at two pagan accounts of the birth or the fashioning of the world, and see why the account of the sacred authors of the Hebrews is not only different from them, not only a correction or a completion, but a radically new revelation. Yet we will also consider how the Old Testament can speak to the imaginations of pagans then and now, without condemning them as simply and purely in error.
Readings:
Genesis 1-24
Exodus 3
Job 38-41
Psalm 8
The Epic of Gilgamesh (for October 17)
Hesiod, Theogony (for October 24)
The Enuma Elish (optional)
instituteofcatholicculture.org/events/the-mythological-imagination-or-not
Instructor:
Dr. Anthony Esolen is the author of dozens of books and over 1,500 articles in both scholarly and general interest journals. Known for his three-volume verse translation of the Modern Library edition of Dante's Divine Comedy, Professor Esolen has also written verse translations of Tasso's epic poem, Jerusalem Delivered, and of Lucretius' On the Nature of Things. His own book-length sacred poem, The Hundredfold: Songs for the Lord, is a series of 100 lyric poems and dramatic monologues interspersed with two dozen of his own beautifully written hymns. He has taught literature and the humanities for over 30 years, and he is a frequent speaker at colleges and at church and civic institutions. Dr. Esolen currently serves as Distinguished Professor of Humanities at Thales College in Wake Forest, NC. For more from Dr. Esolen, please visit his online magazine, Word & Song, at www.AnthonyEsolen.com.
Want to dive deeper? Visit our website for hundreds of hours of free audio and video content: instituteofcatholicculture.org
